Accounting Scholars –
does it matter what we
teach them?
William R. Kinney, Jr.
University of Texas at Austin
American Accounting Association
Curriculum Challenge Contest
San Antonio, Texas
August 17, 2002
1. Accounting curricula today
• Many good courses, but not necessarily
good curricula – especially at PhD level
• Three curricula with different objectives
– BBA/MAcc (professionals), MBA
(users), PhD (scholars)
• Accounting scholarship is about
consequences of accounting choice(s)
Accounting is . . .
• used pre and post decision to:
– Run a business (management)
– Value a business (investors and analysts)
– Oversee a business (regulators, directors)
– Settle contracts and tax payments (trading
partners, government)
• a blend of: measurement, information
economics, technology, regulation, finance,
individual and organizational behavior,
industrial organization, law, history, and
political economy
Accounting and Corporate
Governance
FASB/
AICPA
SEC
Auditor
Independent
Directors
Management
Customers
Workers
Suppliers
Lenders
FS
Analysts/
intermediaries
Congress
Stockholders
Competitors
General
public
Accounting and Corporate Governance
Show me the money!
FASB/
AICPA
SEC
Auditor
$ $
$
Management
Customers
Workers
Suppliers
Lenders
$
$
$
Congress
Independent
Directors
$
Stockholders
FS
$
Analysts/
intermediaries
Competitors
$
General
public
New Accounting Scholars need
• breadth of understanding of concepts
underlying
– accounting choice(s)
– research methods
• depth in some areas, issues, and
research methods
• efficient preparation for a scholarly
career
Today they get . . .
• Capital market research methods (90%)
• Behavioral research methods (53%)
• Analytic research methods (33%)
• Other individual courses (33% or fewer)
(survey Doctoral Consortium students - 2002)
2. An accounting concepts and
issues-based curriculum
Research Concepts and Methods
“Public” Accounting Concepts
“Private” Accounting Concepts
Mini-specialty
Mini-specialty
Comprehensive examination
Research Concepts and Methods
• Introduction to philosophy of science
• Research design principles (validity and
planning to minimize b risk)
• Experiments, archival studies, and the
advantages and limitations of each
• Theories about accounting (where to get
them, how to adapt theories of others)
“Public” Accounting Concepts
• Measurement and human behavior in
regulated capital markets
• Economics of mandated (and voluntary)
public reporting systems
• Theories of and about “public” accounting
• Politics and history of GAAP
• Accounting choice in society
“Private” Accounting Concepts
• Measurement and human behavior in
private transactions and contracting
• Technology, organization design and
economics of “private” accounting
• Accounting measurements as decision
facilitating and decision influencing
• Unintended consequences of systematic
measurement within organizations
Specialty and issues mini-courses
(seven weeks each)
• Sub disciplines – auditing, internal
control, taxation, information systems
• Methods – capital market archival,
experiments, analysis, other
• Topics and issues – earnings
management, regulation, corporate
governance, compensation, theories
(Feltham/Ohlson, positive, contracting,
behavioral finance)
3. Conclusions
• Accounting choice has substance – let’s
address its underlying concepts
• Accounting has current issues (and
methods) – let’s explore them in classes
• Rewards to good PhD curricula are high:
– Better-prepared students (at all levels)
– More relevance in our own research
– A better society?